Help loading - advice!

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moocow

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My mare is coming on great with her schooling and her hacking. It used to be a nightmare but we are really getting places. The only real problem I have with her is loading. We were going toa pleasure ride at the weekend and it took us an hour to load her. Any advice? We have tried everything. She walks calmly towards the ramp and then stops. Nothing will make her go forward. sometimes we get to one or two front hooves on the ramp and then she rares and twists off to the side. We tried - getting to two hooves on and just standing and reassuring her, she just stands for a bit then hops off, a lunge rein behind her and it only makes her worse. Loading her in a confined space i.e. gate way, loading her in the open space i.e. the yard, loading her with company, loading her without, loading her on left side, loading her on right side, loading her with front ramp down, loading her with front ramp up and just head space open. I practice with her in the yard andt its always the same, takes an hour to get her in and then keep doing it but its back to square one the next time you try and load her. tried walking her towards the ramp and when she starts to resists, calmly walking her around and trying again.

She used to be great at loading with her previous owner and she hasn't had any scarey experience in the box with me. My friend tows her as she is much better and more experienced. I have always travelled with her so I know for definate that she hasn't had a scare.

Her raring is getting really bad now. she nearly went over yesterday. Thing is, she has never had an angry word or agression over this. When she lands from her rare, she is as calm as you like. Then all of a sudden, she will just go in.

Any advice?
 
Sounds just like my mare, we have just been on a loading course last week and what a differenc. Angel can rear for ENGLAND when it come to the trailer she will go vertically up then stay there. Invest in a dually halter, that is the only thing I have found to work (or a stud ring - but these are a lot harsher). do lots of leading with her in the dually walking forwards then making her walk backwards. USe exactly the same technique when going to load, walk her up to the box be 1 step ahead so when she goes to stand still you walk her backwards, keep doing it then eventually let her put her foot on or sniff the ramp, then push her back again. I'm not saying it will work straight away but will work eventually, lots of practise. Once the dually is on Angel has tried to rear in it but it dosn't work, the trick is to keep them moving backwards and forwards so they can't think about rearing and actually start to want to go on the box.

Have a look on you tube for videos by kelly marks, my mare is on there, i will see if i can find it.

Good luck i am with you on how frustrating it is after 4 years of it i am finally getting somewhere after trying everything!
 
Thanks for that angeldelight. I wonder if I can find any of those courses over here? I wil have a look online tonight (when not dossing in work!) for the youtube vids etc and the halter.

TA!
 
Do you have daily access to a trailer? If so we had a stuborn one and we fed him in the trailer every day. If he didn't go in he didn't get any food. (it sounds a bit harsh but he was a bit of a fatty!) He soon figured it out and we continued with this for a week after he was loading fine and never had any further problems.
 
I do but she gets fed at 3 and I am not out to the yard till 6. I am not sure that would work with her though, yesterday she was exhausted after the pleasure ride. It took us 6 hours!
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But still, she gathered herself up to rare when we tried to load her.
 
I had a mare just like yours, fixed it within a few hours with a genius man called Grant Bazin. Never had a problem since and she now loads onto anything like an absolutel dream - loads herself actually!

Google practical horsemanship, or PM me for his contact number. Please be careful - my mare did go over off the ramp of a lorry and caused herself a lot of injury, and me an awful lot of guilt and stress! All this did was make the situation worse. Better to stop now and get professional help.
 
We once bought a youngster that had never been loaded since travelling with her dam as a foal - we got her as a very large 2 yr old.

What we did was to lay down plywood boards & tarpaulins and let her walk over then, getting used to the noise and the sensation of walking over something different. We literally spent hours doing this building up her confidence. We made it scarier and scarier until she was virtually unflappable before going near the box.

She paused at first but then went in. We then did lots of loading, unloading, ramp up, ramp down etc. She was fed in there and allowed time.

This of course took a lot of time and patience but it made the final result so much easier. Not a quick fix by any means but certainly worked for the long term.
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Hi, I have a 13.2 strong stubborn pony who wouldn't load into our 2 horse, side ramp, rear facing lorry. We had to abandon shows at times as we couldn't load him. One day I allocated the whole day to cracking the problem and after 3 hours of resorting to blindfolding, trying to ride him in, food, lunge, broom up the bum etc, I had a sort of out of body experience when I looked at down at myself and all I saw was a calm but stubborn pony and me, very very cross and frustrated, and I thought I had to completely calm down, that the only one being affected by it all was me. So back to the drawing board. So I took a deep breath and sat down on the ramp, holding his leadrope, and ate a packet of biscuits, had a cup of tea and a fag, and he eventually stopped going backwards and came to me. Then I put him away and came back the next day. I didn't try to load him, I asked him to follow me in a circle with us both walking across the front of the ramp then off again. He didn't object. Next day, same thing. Then I tried to go up a bit further. He would go 2 paces forward then stop. I stopped too, always with me at head level, never in front, and never took any pull on the rope. Then stood like that for a second or two and turned right away and circled, reapproached and repeated this until I thought he'd done a good enough job and I put him away again. After about 4 days he would go nearly all the way up, but then pull back. I stood my ground and refused to be pulled out of the lorry, just stood with my back to him and remained calm. I had someone else there to catch his rope if I had to drop it and we were in an enclosed yard. He never ran off though. A couple of days of this and he would go in (I would have to be on his right so that I was never in the space he was meant to go in, it meant he had an empty space and I wasn't obstructing his view of things. He would go in and then I would bring him straight back out again. After about 3 goes and when he was happy to stand in for a 3 secs or so I would ask my pal to push the partition across for a sec or so and then open it and we would come out. We did this for half an hour and then gave up for the day. Next day he would go straight in, have the partition locked in place and stand happily. Then we moved to putting the ramp up, but with the jockey door open. Then closed it all up and started the engine, then after a day or so we went for a short drive. This pony now loads on the side of a road after a days hunting, fully tacked up, when time is very short. Oh, the irony is though that having been told that he wouldn't load in a trailer, I once didn't have use of the lorry so had no choice but to try him, allocated 4 hours to training, and the b**ger went straight in and travelled like a dream. All I can say after all this is that I've found that light, open spaces in lorries are better, no head guards, etc, the use of a chifney if the rearing is a real pain, never leaving it to the last minute, allocating plenty of time to practice on a daily basis prior to needing him to actually go in, staying at his head level not infront, and above all KEEP CALM! I never thought we'd get there and I'd never be able to sell him on because of it, but now he's a dream, and life is so much happier! Good luck.
 
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